futurefandomcom-20200229-history
Future Presidents (TheMaster197)
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term by the people through the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. Since the office was established in 1789, 49 men and 4 women have served as president. The first man, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College and the first woman; Elise Stefanik won against incumbent Conor Lamb. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms in office (the only president to have done so) and is therefore counted as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States; the 54th and current president is William Todd jr. (since January 20, 2073). There are currently seven living former presidents. The most recent former president to die was Barack Obama, on August 30, 2066. The presidency of William Henry Harrison, who died 31 days after taking office in 1841, was the shortest in American history. Franklin D. Roosevelt served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945. He is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. Since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once. Of those who have served as the nation's president, four died in office of natural causes (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy), and one resigned (Richard Nixon, facing impeachment). John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency during a presidential term, and set the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with his own presidency, as opposed to a caretaker president. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution put Tyler's precedent into law in 1967. It also established a mechanism by which an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency could be filled. Richard Nixon was the first president to fill a vacancy under this provision when he selected Gerald Ford for the office following Spiro Agnew's resignation in 1973. The following year, Ford became the second to do so when he chose Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him after he acceded to the presidency. As no mechanism existed for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency prior to 1967, the office was left vacant until filled through the next ensuing presidential election. Gerald Ford was also the last President to never be formally elected into the job as he lost his re-election to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Throughout most of its history, American politics has been dominated by political parties. The Constitution is silent on the issue of political parties, and at the time it came into force in 1789, there were no parties. Soon after the 1st Congress convened, factions began rallying around dominant Washington administration officials, such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Greatly concerned about the capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. He was, and remains, the only U.S. president never affiliated with a political party. The longest streaks of Presidents belonging to one party was 2021-2041 with Sanders, Buttigieg and Lamb beating the 1933-1953 streak with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman belonging to the Democrats by 44 days. Although, the streak of Republican candidates winning election from 1860 to 1884 does technically count as elected presidents it was interrupted by Lincoln's assassination leading to Vice President Democratic Unionist Andrew Johnson becoming President. The GI Generation had seven Presidents; JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and George H.W Bush. The Baby Boomer generation had four presidents; Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Interestingly until 2020, the Silent Generation (born 1925-1945) was the only generation to never have a single president, however after 2028 that distinction was given to Generation X (born 1965-1980); also likely the only generation to never hold a majority in the US Congress, while the Millennial Generation (born 1981-1999) had seven presidents; Buttigieg, Lamb, Stefanik, Obama-Turner, Hernandez, James and Ellis. 45th President - Donald Trump (R - New York) Executive Orders Controversies and Scandals Impeachment and Senate Trials An impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump was initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24, 2019, after a whistleblower alleged that Trump may have abused the power of the presidency by withholding military aid as a means of pressuring newly elected president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to perform two favors: to pursue investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and to support a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election. More than a week after Trump had put a hold on the previously approved military aid, he made the aforementioned requests in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, which the whistleblower alleged was intended to help Trump's reelection bid. Believing that critical military aid would be revoked, Zelensky made plans to announce investigations of the Bidens on the September 13 episode of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS. After Trump was told of the whistleblower complaint in late August, and elements of the events had begun to leak, the aid was released on September 11 and the planned interview was cancelled. Trump declassified a non-verbatim transcript of the call on September 24, the day the impeachment inquiry began. The whistleblower's complaint was given to Congress the following day and subsequently released to the public. The White House corroborated several of the allegations, including that a record of the call between Trump and Zelensky had been stored in a highly restricted system in the White House normally reserved for classified information. In October, three full Congressional committees (Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs) deposed witnesses including Ukraine ambassador Bill Taylor, Laura Cooper (the top Pentagon official overseeing Ukraine-related U.S. policy), and former White House official Fiona Hill. Witnesses testified that Trump wanted Zelensky to publicly announce investigations into the Bidens and Burisma (a Ukrainian natural gas company on whose board Hunter Biden had served)515 and 2016 election interference. On October 8, in a letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to House Speaker Pelosi, the White House officially responded that it would not cooperate with the investigation due to concerns including that there had not yet been a vote of the full House and that interviews of witnesses were being conducted behind closed doors. On October 17, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said, in response to a reporter's allegation of quid pro quo: "We do that all the time with foreign policy. Get over it." He walked back his comments later in the day, asserting that there had been "absolutely no quid pro quo" and that Trump had withheld military aid to Ukraine over concerns of the country's corruption. On October 31, the House of Representatives voted 232–196 to establish procedures for public hearings, which started on November 13. As hearings began, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said President Trump may have committed bribery, which is specifically listed as an impeachable offense in the Constitution.25 Private and public congressional testimony by twelve government witnesses in November 2019 presented evidence that Trump demanded political favors in exchange for official action. On December 3, the House Intelligence Committee published a report stating that "the impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection." On December 10, the House Judiciary Committee unveiled their articles of impeachment: one for abuse of power and one for obstruction of Congress. Three days later, the Judiciary Committee voted along party lines (23–17) to approve both articles; the full House is expected to vote on them on December 18. On December 15, Chuck Schumer, in a letter to Mitch McConnell, called for four senior officials to testify in the expected Senate trial, and suggested pre-trial proceedings take place on January 6, 2020. On December 16, the House Judiciary Committee released its 658-page report, specifying criminal bribery and wire fraud charges as part of the abuse of power impeachment article. On December 18th, 2019 the House of Representatives voted 230-205 along party lines with 1 Independent saying yes, 9 democrats saying no and 5 republicans saying yes. Over the course of the inquiry support for impeachment against Trump remained stable and high around 48-56%, levels that Richard Nixon did not see until May, 1974. Many conservative commentators and Republicans called the results partisan, an attack on the President, or a sabotage on his re-election efforts. Over the course of the next two months many Republicans in the Senate including Mitch McConnell refused to hold the expected Senate trial until all the evidence was in. The White House threatened to "shut down" any major legislation until the President was acquitted. Some of the more conservative members of the Republicans in Congress even suggested walking out or shutting down the government if a trail were to be held, while others knew that the Republicans would acquit Trump no matter what evidence was brought forward. On October 10th, 2019 two associates of Trump's then lawyer Rudy Giuliani were arrested and later found guilty. On February 18th, 2020 Trump's 2016 campaign manager Roger Stone who was arrested on November 15th, 2019, eventually found guilty of seven counts of witness tampering, obstructing official proceeding, and five counts of making false statements and was sentenced to 16-years in prison being eligible for parole in 2030. The Senate trails were eventually held beginning on March 27th, 2020 which lasted until April 2nd, 2020 when the Senate voted in a 50-49 vote not-guilty with two Republican senators voting "yay" and another two not even voting at all. Many non-Republicans felt that the trails were rushed to a "non-guilty" verdict to help legitamize Trump's presidency and re-election campaign and many protests broke out across the country as a result of the verdict. Economy - Greatest advantage to real liability Trump inherited an economy that while facing some signs of increasing stagnation in 2016 was still stable, expanding and creating an average of 200,000 jobs a month despite the economic slowdown in China and the severe recession in Brazil. The economy had been steadily expanding since the summer of 2009, and unemployment had plummeted from 9.9% in April, 2010 to 4.7% by January, 2017 adding 15,728,000 jobs over that time period, much more rapid than the 2003-07 job creation. Immediately, following Trump's election victory economic confidence indicators among more conservative and Republican sectors of the population skyrocketed while the economic confidence among liberals, moderates as well as Democrats and Independents remained mostly flat. With decreased regulation, and a massive tax cut in January, 2018 did act as a minor boost for the economy, the growth never much improved as 2017 had the lowest number of jobs created since 2011, despite growing 2.3% that year and 2018 had the same exact job and economic growth numbers as 2015. However, a sharp increase in the stock markets were noted over the course of 2017 despite growing stagnant over the next three years. Unemployment continued to decrease much as it had over the previous several years before Trump's presidency but that was less due to his policies and more due to the economic expansion continuing its cycle. Unemployment dropped from 4.9% in 2016 to 4.4% in 2017 to 3.9% in 2018 before reaching a low of 3.7% in 2019 with its lowest rate of 3.5% in September, 2019. Many conservative news outlets, pundits and politicians used the numbers to indicate Trump's positive effect on the economy, however, this came off as slightly disingenuous as economic numbers were very largely ignored from the years 2012 to 2016. The tax cuts in January, 2018 saw the top income tax rate on corporations cut from 39.6% to 21% and the top income tax rates cut from 39.6% to 37%. Trump's increasing in military spending without increasing taxes caused the annual deficit to increase from $585-billion in 2016 to $778-billion in 2018. However, this combined with massive tax cuts caused the annual deficit to balloon from $778-billion in 2018 to $1.059-trillion in 2019 before the recession pushed it up to $1.376-trillion in 2020. However, there were signs of the expansion beginning to show signs of age, as economic confidence peaked in late-2018. In the third quarter of 2019, the US economy grew by 2.1%, however this slowed down to 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019 leading to a year of 1.9% GDP growth, the slowest since 2016. In 2018, the US economy had its best year since 2015, with 2,674,000 being created, 2015 had 2,724,000 new jobs and a GDP growth rate of 2.9% matching the growth of 2015. In January, 2019 the US economy looked to be on this track of continued expansion as that month saw 312,000 new jobs being created. However, February, 2019 only saw 56,000 new jobs being created and in May, 2019 the yield curve between 10-year bonds and 3-month bonds inverted as the odds of a recession spiked to 30% its highest since early-2008. In the summer and fall of 2019, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates twice from 2.00% to 1.75% in August then from 1.75% to 1.50% in October. These measures temporarily halted the odds of a recession from increasing, however the threats of a trade war between the US and China still loomed and the UK entered a recession the following winter. In November, 2019 the US economy added 230,000 jobs (initially was 266,000 but was revised in February, 2020), however, many of the jobs that month were temporary seasonal positions and 50,000 were from GM workers who returned to work after a strike was settled. Over the course of 2019, business confidence had been declining, and consumer confidence had plateaued from 2018 to November, 2019 while the economic optimism index had slowly been dropping since May, 2019. Home sales had peaked in 2018 along with new home construction and were down -2.1% that year, along with a small decrease in automobile sales. In July, 2019 the US had officially entered its longest expansionary period on record leading many to become even more cautious about a potential recession. December saw the job gain numbers decline to 93,000 and January, 2020 saw the numbers decline to 28,000 causing unemployment to increase from 3.5% in November to 4.1% in January. In December, the business confidence index dropped to 47.2 the lowest rate since June, 2009 the month that the Great Recession ended and in January it dropped to 46.0 its lowest since May 2009. The next month February, saw the first negative jobs report since September, 2010 at -156,000 causing unemployment to increase to 4.4%. The federal government sought to hire more census workers than usual for the 2020 Census to offset the losses at 700,000 compared to 635,000 in 2010. While census hiring did help to shadow some of the job losses in the spring of 2020, after the -156,000 job loss in February job losses to to a combined total of -35,000 for the spring months keeping the unemployment increase limited from 4.4% in February to 5.0% in May, it was only a matter of time before the census layoffs would cause a spike in the negative job numbers. The US economy which had grown 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019 shrunk 1.4% in the first quarter of 2020. The census layoffs began in late May, 2020 and continued until September, 2020 causing the job losses to increase from -19,000 in May to -579,000 in June, sending the unemployment rate up from 5.0% to 5.6%. Inevitably, once the census layoffs began affecting the job numbers, it triggered a psychological blow to the US population causing the economy to shed another -673,000 jobs in July sending the unemployment rate up to 6.1% then another -851,000 in August sending the unemployment rate up to 6.6%. The news did not improve much the next month as another -688,000 jobs were lost sending the unemployment rate up to 7.2%. In October, 2020 the rate of job losses began to decline to -339,000 as census layoffs were finished and businesses were starting to regain some profitability, however, it was too little too late. By this point the unemployment rate was 7.5% and Trump's one remaining advantage to winning re-election was gone as his remaining support from independents from 37% in November, 2019 to 18% in August and September of 2020. The US economy shrunk -1.4% in the first quarter of 2020 before plummeting by another -6.5% in the second quarter of 2020 and -2.6% in the third quarter of 2020. However, the recession did end in November, 2020 as the US economy grew by 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2020. Foreign Policy Blunders - Iran and Trade Wars During the 2016 election campaign, Trump "repeatedly defined American global interests almost purely in economic terms," with the nation's "roles as a peacekeeper, as a provider of a nuclear deterrent against adversaries like North Korea, as an advocate of human rights and as a guarantor of allies' borders" being "quickly reduced to questions of economic benefit to the United States."4 He also repeatedly called for allied countries, including Germany, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, to compensate the United States for helping protect their nations, and suggested that his willingness to defend a country might depend on how much that country was willing to "pay us to save them." This caused many of the United States relations with its allies to worsen and invoked annoyance in many foreign leaders around the world. Trump and his advisors continued this theme throughout the presidency, emphasizing their view that other countries need to increase their financial commitment to their own defense or compensate the United States for providing it. Trump also supported a robust national defense during the 2016 election and in his first budget proposal as president in March 2017, Trump proposed a $54 billion (10%) increase in defense spending, to a total of $639 billion for fiscal year 2018. He said the increase would be needed to fight terrorism, improve troop readiness, and build new ships and planes and would be paid for by deep cuts to other agencies, including a 28% cut from the State Department budget. He also requested an additional $30 billion for the Defense Department for the remainder of fiscal year 2017. As a presidential candidate, Trump emphasized a "get-tough" approach toward suspected terrorists. He called for the resumption of waterboarding "and much worse". He repeatedly expressed support for the use of torture by the U.S. for the purpose of trying to get information from suspected terrorists, and said the law should be changed to allow waterboarding and other forms of torture. However, after his election, Trump stated that he would defer to the views of then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who opposed waterboarding and torture. Trump has continued the U.S.'s war against the Islamic State terror group, including overseeing the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October 2019. Trump also ordered a counter-terrorism strike in Yemen, which was made without any input from the State Department. Upon taking office, Trump relied more on White House advisors rather than the State Department to advise him on international relations. He initially chose former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Tillerson did not have previous government or diplomatic experience, but due to ExxonMobil's international activities he had experience and contacts in many other countries, particularly Russia. In many cases Trump has given important foreign policy assignments to advisors within the White House, particularly former chief political strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Jared Kushner. Budget cuts and reliance on advisors led to media reports that the State Department has been noticeably "sidelined" during the administration. The State Department normally has two deputy secretaries of state and six undersecretaries, regarded as senior posts; by March 2017 no nominations had been submitted for any of those positions Trump has made a number of consequential foreign policy decisions throughout his presidency, including, his reversals and reevaluations of the U.S.'s previously-established global commitments—such as his gradual drawdown of the U.S.'s role in the Syrian Civil War and withdrawing the United States from the JCPOA, the INF Treaty, and UNESCO. He has proposed a replacement agreement for NAFTA, a travel ban from certain countries, increased sanctions on Iran, and sought direct, bilateral relations with North Korea among other, often unilateral, decisions. The attempts at direct tough-talk with North Korea were ineffective as the two nations had been at a cease-fire with eachother since 1953, and following the election of South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the South in 2017, inter-Korean relations rapidly improved to their greatest point since before Independence as cooperation between the two sides politically reached a new all time high, instantly forcing Trump to change his diplomacy tactics on North Korea. His drawdown of the U.S's role in the Syrian Civil War in 2019, only helped prolong the Civil War in that nation as Turkey immediately invaded Syria following the drawdown leading to Turkey annexing 5,000-sqmi of sovereign Syrian territory and the creation of an additional 300,000 displaced Syrians. Trump's withdrawl of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was seen as the greatest foreign policy blunder of any US President since the Iraq War under the George W Bush administration. In the summer of 2019, an attack on a US military drone almost led the administration to declare war on Iran, before deciding not to start a war with Iran in the final moments. The move was criticized by many international organization around the world, foreign governments, the US Department of Defense, scholars and even 63% of the United States population in an opinion poll from 2018 said that the US should remain in the agreement. The United States announced its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the "Iran nuclear deal" or the "Iran deal", on May 8, 2018. In a joint statement responding to the U.S. withdrawal, the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom stated that United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the nuclear deal remained the "binding international legal framework for the resolution of the dispute". On 17 May 2018 the European Commission announced its intention to implement the blocking statute of 1996 to declare U.S. sanctions against Iran illegal in Europe and ban European citizens and companies from complying with them. The commission also instructed the European Investment Bank to facilitate European companies' investment in Iran. Immediately following the withdrawal US-Iranian relations plummeted to their lowest point since the Iran Revolution and the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1978-81. The Iranian government believed that the United States’ decision on 8 May 2018, to re-impose nuclear sanctions on Iran was a violation of the United States' international obligations, "especially articles 4, 7, 8, 9, 10" of JCPOA and the Treaty of Amity. Consequently, Iran filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice on 16 July 2018. Following the withdrawal from the deal new sanctions imposed by the US were immediately placed on Iran, causing massive economic issues in Iran leading to rapidly increasing political and social instability. On June 20, 2019, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's (IRGC) shot down a United States RQ-4A Global Hawk BAMS-D surveillance drone with a surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials said that the drone violated their airspace, while U.S. officials responded that the drone was in international airspace. Both Iran and the U.S. differ on where the incident actually occurred. The incident occurred amid rising tensions between the two countries and nearly resulted in an armed confrontation. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a military strike against IRGC radar and missile sites before reversing the decision. Instead, the U.S. retaliated with cyber attacks on the IRGC's missile-control systems (which Iran said were firewalled), announced new sanctions against several important Iranians, and requested a closed-door UN Security Council meeting to address the regional tensions. The United States created the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) in response to the crisis, which "increases overall surveillance and security in key waterways in the Middle East", according to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy. A major flashpoint in the crisis occurred on 3 January 2020, when President Donald Trump approved the targeted killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed in the drone attack. Some analysts warned that Iran might retaliate. "From Iran’s perspective, it is hard to imagine a more deliberately provocative act," said Robert Malley, the president of the think tank International Crisis Group. "And it is hard to imagine that Iran will not retaliate in a highly aggressive manner." In preparation for retaliatory attacks from Iran, the U.S. deployed an additional 3,000 ground troops to the Middle East, in addition to 14,000 already stationed there since May the previous year. To make matters worse on March 23rd, 2020 230,000 demonstrators, extremists, and militia members outside the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq stormed the complex in a movement that killed 8,389 Iraqi and 777 Iranian civilians and 323 US soldiers, holding all 77 necessary employees and the remaining 427 US soldiers in the embassy hostage demanding an end to US occupation of the nation, the US re-enter the 2015 JCPOA, end of all sanctions and military activity on both Iraq and Iran. Following the takeover of the Baghdad embassy, world oil prices soared 11.3% the following day up from $69.03 a barrell on March 23rd to $76.83 on closing on March 24th peaking at $90.17 on June 3rd. Following this, many courses of action were proposed by the Trump administration including, bombing the embassy, sending a large amount of US troops into Baghdad to free them, along with cutting off resources and supply routes into Iraq and Iran. On April 19th, more sanctions were placed onto Iraq and Iran along with a US military blockade of supplies into both nations. While initially successful, this backfired however, as on May 1st, they began executing two hostages every week that the supply blockades were in effect leading to their withdrawal on July 11th after the execution of 20 US hostages. On November 4th, the day after Trump lost re-election 242 hostages, roughly half of them were released with another 121 released on January 20th, 2021 at 2pm and the remainder of them released on February 12th, 2021. 2020 Election Early in the campaign the Democrats focused on Trump's lack of ethics and respect for the office, policies towards a more economically secure future in the case of automation and restoring the US image abroad. Trump and the Republicans focused on the unemployment rate which at that time was still hovering around 3.5% to 4% and the tax cuts of early-2018. Trump was already facing low approval ratings around 42% before the impeachment proceedings brought his approval ratings down to 39% before the Senate trail in the end of January. The final issue that completely undermined any chance of re-election he had was when on March 6th, 2020 the first in a series of negative job reports were released indicating a recession which had begun at the end of January, 2020 that raised the unemployment rate from 3.5% in November, 2019 to 5.0% in May, 2020. The census that year had kept job losses down to a minimum but once the census firings began it triggered a psychological shock in the economy that caused a short spike in job losses and the US unemployment rate from 5% in May to 7.4% in October. Sanders led every pre-election nationwide poll, all the swing state polls, however, unlike 2016 the polls weren't that far off except for three surprise upsets in Montana, Missouri and Indiana, Mike Pence's home state. The electoral vote count for Sanders was the greatest of any presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984, the fifth greatest for any non-incumbent candidate behind Hoover in 1928, FDR in 1932, Eisenhower in 1952 and Reagan in 1980. This election had the largest popular vote gap in US history at 25,630,482 votes finally beating the record long held by Richard Nixon in 1972 at 17,995,488 by almost 8-million votes. The margin of victory in the popular vote of 17.5% was the largest of any non-incumbent president since FDR in 1932 and the third largest in the modern era (1824-Present) behind Harding in 1920 and FDR in 1932. Sanders won 14 states that Trump won in 2016: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Sanders was the first Democrat to win either Arizona or Missouri since Bill Clinton in 1996, the first to win either Montana or Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992, the first to win Texas since Jimmy Carter in 1976 and the first to win North Dakota since LBJ in 1964. He also won the largest share of the popular vote by a Democrat since LBJ in 1964. Many of these factors led many commentators to compare Trump's loss to that of Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Herbert Hoover in 1932, making it one of the greatest defeats of an incumbent president in the modern era. This election was the only instance between 1992 and 2040 where an incumbent president was defeated in their re-election bid. Post-Presidency Trump spent the remainder of his life at Mar-A-Lago, a 2022 Sienna Presidential poll ranked him 43rd out of 45 Presidents ahead of only Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan. He spent the remainder of his life campaigning for Republicans, while they continued to distance themselves from him, criticizing and chastising his successors on Twitter and other forms of social media, especially Bernie Sanders. His third wife Melania Trump divorced him in 2026 after their son turned 21 and moved to be closer to her family. A 2023 investigation by the Better Business Bureau found many instances of fraud, illegal foreign dealings, hiding of records and tax dodging he was later investigated by the IRS. On March 27th, 2024 Trump was ordered to release his tax returns from when he was running for President and further investigation led to a July 27th, 2024 verdict that Trump is to owe the IRS $700-million personally for years of under-reporting his earnings and tax code manipulations. Following his inflammatory rhetoric and erratic behavior that he exercised during his Presidency, many of his older children in charge of the Trump Organization began to distance themselves from him to save the future of the brand and secure more building projects, where it became a luxury real-estate Conglomerate. On September 4th, 2032 Trump died at his Mar-A-Lago home and was held a public funeral where few people other than those that supported him in the 2020 Election showed up. 46th President - Bernie Sanders (D - Vermont) 2020 Election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial American presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020. The Democratic ticket of U.S. Senator Bernie Senators and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren defeated the incumbent Republican ticket of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, marking the first time since 1992 and the only time between 1992 and 2040 that a non-incumbent ticket won the presidential election. Sanders took office as the 46th president, and Warren as the 49th vice president on January 20, 2021. Sanders emerged as his party's nominee amidst a wide field of Democratic primary candidates, after a highly contested primary battle between him and former vice president Joe Biden. Biden's populist, social democratic campaign, which promised better banking reforms, more progressive taxation, "inclusive capitalism", job training programs, better social welfare benefits. Trump's nationalist, protectionist, populist campaign which promised to "Keep America Great" seemed rather oxymoronic given the circumstances of Trump's presidency and the country as a whole leading up to the election. Trump faced a barrage of controversies leading up to the election, such as his breach of the presidential code of conduct, contempt of congress, contempt of the supreme court, and his impeachment trails which failed to lead to his removal from office because of a very bi-partisan vote in the Senate where all but 2 Republicans voted nay on removal from office. Early in the campaign the Democrats focused on Trump's lack of ethics and respect for the office, policies towards a more economically secure future in the case of automation and restoring the US image abroad. Trump and the Republicans focused on the unemployment rate which at that time was still hovering around 3.5% to 4% and the tax cuts of early-2018. Trump was already facing low approval ratings around 42% before the impeachment proceedings brought his approval ratings down to 39% before the Senate trail in the end of January. The final issue that completely undermined any chance of re-election he had was when on March 6th, 2020 the first in a series of negative job reports were released indicating a recession which had begun at the end of January, 2020 that raised the unemployment rate from 3.5% in November, 2019 to 5.0% in May, 2020. The census that year had kept job losses down to a minimum but once the census firings began it triggered a psychological shock in the economy that caused a short spike in job losses and the US unemployment rate from 5% in May to 7.4% in October. This combined with a hostage crisis in the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq led to Sanders' landslide victory in 2020. Rapid Reforms of the 117th Congress The 2020 Election cycle also saw Democrats gain 11 seats giving them a 59-seat majority their largest since 2010, an additional 44 seats in the House of Representatives, giving them a 279 seat majority their largest since 1978. The election was also a Democrat landslide on the state level to with the Democrats gaining a majority in 11 state senates, 9 state houses bringing their state level control from 19 state senates and 20 state houses to 30 state senates and 29 state houses. With these new massive majorities, Bernie Sanders and the Democrats were able to pass legislation at a rate similar to the 111th Congress of Obama's first two years, LBJ's Great Society and FDR's New Deal. The 117th Congress saw 41 acts of major legislation being passed the most in the post-war era even surpassing the 111th Congress' 34 acts of major legislation. Some of the Major Legislation Enacted by the 117th Congress * January 27th, 2021: Campaign Public Disclosure Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-1 * January 29th, 2021: For the People Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-3 * February 3rd, 2021: SAFE Banking Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-4 * February 10th, 2021: Equality Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-6 * February 15th, 2021: American Clean Energy and Economic Security Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-7 * February 27th, 2021: WISE Government Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-8 * March 2nd, 2021: American Tax Equality and Fairness Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-9 * April 19th, 2021: Workforce of the Future Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-14 * July 27th, 2021: Save the Internet Act, 2021, Pub.L. 117-18 * September 3rd, 2021: Affordable College Textbook Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-21 * November 19th, 2021: College Affordability Readiness and Effectiveness Act of 2021, Pub.L. 117-26 * January 29th, 2022: Employee Free Choice Act of 2022, Pub.L. 117-32 * March 23rd, 2022: Universal Medicare Act, 2022, Pub.L. 117-36 * April 29th, 2022: Bare Minimum Wage We Can Do Act of 2022, Pub.L. 117-37 Healthcare Threat of Automation in the Future Minimum Wage In 2022, following the passage of the Bare Minimum Wage We Can Do Act, the minimum wage was raised for the first time since 2009 from $7.25 an hour in 2022 to $9.10 an hour in 2023 and was raised again in 2026 to $10.90 an hour and again in 2029 to $12.50 an hour to $13.75 an hour in 2032 then $15 an hour in 2035 where it would be adjusted for inflation afterwards. Congress debated for months on how to finally increase the minimum wage for the first time in a decade and decided that incremental increases over a period of time would be much less of a shock to employers than an instant massive increase. They also agreed that automation would inevitably eliminate many of the lowest paying jobs over the next 30-years regardless if they were to increase the minimum wage or not in that time period. Job Training With the increasing threat of automation in the future, the US Department of Labor decided to increase the amount of funding for Job Training grants up from $2.3-Billion in 2020 to $4.5-Billion in 2021 and adjusted it for inflation afterwards to help create a better trained workforce. Higher Education 2022 Hurricane Season Foreign Policy Helping Restore Stability in the Persian Gulf Following the release of the hostages in Iraq US Inter-Korean Relations 2024 Election The 2024 United States presidential election was the 60th quadrennial American presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024. The Democratic ticket of President Bernie Senators and Vice President Elizabeth Warren defeated the Republican ticket of Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Rick Scott, marking the Bernie Sanders the oldest candidate to win a presidential election in US history at the age of 83. Sanders began his second term in office on January 20, 2025. Cruz emerged as his party's nominee amidst a wide field of Republican primary candidates, after a highly contested primary battle between him and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. Sanders' populist campaign ran on successfully decreasing unemployment, helping rebuild the nations infrastructure, college tuition assistance programs, and successful reforms leading to a more "inclusive capitalism". This contrasted heavily with Cruz's campaign which criticized the "excessive socialism, unnecessary burdensome legislation of the Sanders agenda and it's raging deficits". However, this failed to win over much needed independent voters because the economy was growing at a fairly healthy 2.3%, unemployment was down to 4.9% in October, 2024 with 9.4-million jobs being created since April, 2021. With very few controversies within the administration other than accusations of spying on civilians which had been going on since the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. embassy bombing in Yemen in 2023, and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan going slower than people liked there were no other liabilities on the Sanders' campaign. In the late winter and early spring of 2024 Sanders looked somewhat vulnerable with his approval rating in the upper-40s however they slowly started to rise from 46% in late-February to 58% in late-September as the campaigned carried on. Domestic Policy Updating the US infrastructure Gradually Achieving Universal Healthcare Foreign Policy Fall of Xi Jingping and Democratization of China Post-Presidency 47th President - Pete Buttigieg (D - Indiana) 2022 Indiana Senate Race Becoming less of a moderate and more of a liberal 2028 Election Domestic Policy Achieving Universal Healthcare Education Funding Reform Foreign Policy Inter-Korean relations Space Race 2032 Election Domestic Policy Automation Crisis Foreign Policy Saving the European Union 48th President - Conor Lamb (D - Pennsylvania) 2036 Election Domestic Policy Universal Basic Income Automation Recession of 2039-40 Foreign Policy 49th President - Elise Stefanik (LM - New York) 50th President - Malia Obama-Turner (D - Illinois) 51st President - Eric Hernandez (D - Arizona) 52nd President - LeBron James (LM - Ohio) 53rd President - Ashley Ellis (LM - Texas) 54th President - William Todd jr. (L - Pennsylvania) Category:TheMaster197